Red
by Remember
Summary: [ONE-SHOT] Dracula is on the verge of making Aleera his next bride, but a willful she-wolf is set on challenging him, no matter the cost to herself. Some dogs just need to be put down. R&R


**[NOTE: cover image is a slightly enhanced version of Galadiera's "To feel…". Link to original in my profile. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO ORIGINAL ARTIST.]**

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**Quick A/N: this is by no means as polished as it could be - I haven't even put it in front of a beta, but that's mostly because this is a one-shot; a drabble that I needed to get out of my system and into the universe, so there you have it. It's not perfect, but I'm pleased with how it turned out - even though it's a wee bit shorter than what I normally write and it's dark. BUT - be that as it may, I'm still curious to hear your thoughts and reactions. So enjoy and don't forget to leave a review!**

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_**Red**_

Her skin prickled as she felt the cool light of Diana rest on her shoulders. She had changed maybe a dozen times before and though the pain never got any easier to bear, for the first time in her cursed existence, she had purpose.

_I have to save her_ the thought chanted in her head, pounding to the rhythm of her beating heart as her yellow eyes remained fixed on the blue-eyed demon before her. He would not take her. He could not take her sister. Her father could not bear the loss of another child.

The tingling in her skin seemed to sink deeper and deeper into the lean and sculpted muscle of her willowed form, each tendon and fiber pulsating with warmth in a way that was almost pleasurable – but only for an instant.

Then came the pain.

Though grateful for the cool breeze of the evening, her skin still glistened under the pressure of the change, auburn fur, not as fiercely red as the soft waves of hair on her head, began to grow at an unnatural rate – first on her arms and legs, and then she began to feel it spread along the length of her spine.

"Let her go, or I will kill you," she told the demon through gritted teeth. "This is your last chance."

But the son of the devil merely laughed, undeterred by her alarming alteration.

His laugh was mad and full of mockery.

"Oh no, I think not, little wolf," he said, his smile malevolent.

She could see her sister situated behind him, the pink garb he had insisted she wear accentuating the inherited fire of her hair.

"Tanya, listen to him," her sister said, insisting for the first time in her life on being the voice of reason. "I want to go with him. You have to let me go."

"Yes, pet… listen to your sister."

"If you leave, it will kill Father," Tanya managed through the agony. She whined quietly as the bones in her hand forcibly began to elongate, changing their form as terrible claws pushed out from underneath her nails. "Aleera, please…"

"Let's just go, master," Aleera insisted, unable to bear the vision of her sister's transformation. "She could kill you."

"She cannot kill me," Dracula explained apathetically. "Her will is no match for mine."

Tanya let out an excruciating scream as the light of the moon burned her skin, the last of the cloud-cover vanishing as the curse devoured her whole. She fell to her knees on the forest floor and let out a howl that sent a chill through the Count's spine. As he and Aleera witnessed the violent transformation of woman to wolf, Dracula watched Tanya closely, his dark brows narrowed over his eyes.

It was evident his newest bride still felt deeply for her cursed sister – a human sentimentality he would be certain to snuff out as soon as they returned to Transylvania – but his earlier assertion that this redheaded werewolf before him could not kill him was something he was internally reconsidering.

Tanya Gavrikov had been a thorn in his side during the duration of his stay in this worthless Russian province. Aleera was easily twice as beautiful as her older sister, so much easier to manipulate, to control – but Tanya… Tanya had been the stuff that only queens were made of – willful, strong, brave, and intelligent.

An amicable companion for a king like himself, but upon learning what he truly was, she had fled from his arms, seeking the aid of the one thing that could kill him. He had hoped to seduce and turn Aleera before Tanya returned home, but he had underestimated her determination.

He had developed a terrible habit for underestimating this woman.

When her transformation was complete, her yellow eyes held Dracula's with a ferocity that spoke volumes. He knew the instant she began to stalk towards him that there was no way in hell he'd ever be able to control this magnificent creature before him – though the devil forgive him, he would have loved to try.

"I will give you one last chance to let your sister go willingly," he warned, but the hound snapped at its prey, teeth dripping in venom.

"Tanya, please," Aleera begged, but Tanya's inner she-wolf had taken over.

Dracula, unwilling to be denied his prize in order to save his own hide, allowed his fangs to lengthen, his eyes glowing brilliantly in bloodlust.

"So be it."

He grabbed Aleera by the arm and pulled her out from behind him so she was beside him now. Tanya dashed forward to stop him from doing what she knew he planned to do from the beginning, but her clear path was obstructed when the Count's other brides appeared in the clearing, swooping in through the trees and knocking the werewolf back a good thirty yards away from their master.

The flesh of his brides was pale and leathery, enormous wings having sprouted from their shoulder blades, eyes dark, canines extended.

As the two winged banshees toyed and clawed at Tanya, keeping her away from their master, the she-wolf's eyes pulled away from the temporary distraction just long enough to see that Dracula had bitten down on Aleera's neck, now feeding feverishly from the open wound. Tanya could smell her sister's blood in the air, could hear the frantic rhythm of Aleera's heart and her blood ran cold.

She barked in protest, desperate to reach her sister, but the golden-haired vampiress had sunk her taloned hands into the flesh on either side of her shoulders in a feeble attempt to hold her still as the dark-haired one revealed a terrifying looking syringe filled with a dark red substance.

"Hold her still, Marishka!"

"I'm trying, Verona! She's too strong!"

Tanya struggled fervently against the two brides of Count Dracula, desperate to get to her sister who was having the life drained out of her, but the shock of it all had left her numb. As she thrashed and snapped at her captors, Tanya watched helplessly as Dracula pulled his face back dramatically from Aleera's gory throat, her life-blood glistening around his mouth as he stared up at the moon, eyes glowing blue as he turned his dark head in Tanya's direction.

And then he smiled.

The bastard's grin was toothy and covered in blood – Aleera's blood – and Tanya lost it. She jerked hard against Verona and Marishka's holds, effectively grabbing Marishka by the arm and slamming her against the trunk of a nearby tree, the bride's spine snapping in half, rendering her paralyzed for several glorious seconds before her body could heal itself, leaving Verona to struggle on her own.

But Dracula hardly batted an eye as he watched the she-wolf claw and snap at his eldest bride, struggling with all her might to reach him, but he never betrayed any degree of apprehension or distress. His eyes were full of malicious intent as he moved to now stand behind a peaked Aleera, one arm wrapped around her waist in an effort to keep her upright as he took his free hand and bit into his wrist before placing the bleeding wound in front of the girl's face.

Tanya's mind screamed in protest, but no matter how hard she fought and how much she howled at the night sky, she could not stop her sister from grabbing the Count's offered wrist and feeding on his poisoned blood.

"That's right my darling, feed," Dracula cooed in Aleera's ear. "Feed and be mine."

Aleera, swept up in the eroticism of her dark lover pressed so closely to her and the strange sweetness of his cold blood, never did notice that his eyes were ever-fixed on her sister instead of herself, gaze full of not just sadistic enjoyment, but something far more profound – vengeance. As if his actions were meant to punish Tanya for some unknown misdeed.

When Aleera had fed enough from him, Dracula pulled his bleeding wrist away from her mouth and with reflexes like lightning, he suddenly grabbed her by the head. There was a terrible grind and snap as brute strength ended Aleera's yelp as quickly as it had started and the sound of bone bending at unnatural angles could be heard and her neck was snapped, the Count's eyes still fixed on Tanya as she watched her beloved sister fall like a rag-doll to the ground – dead.

Tanya howled her anguish after freeing herself from Verona's hold and made a move to leap towards her sister's killer, but the two brides were soon on either side of her, holding her in place. She watched as the Count bent down to pick up the syringe that had been lost in the earlier scuffle before twirling it about between his fingers as he stalked toward the wolf.

"You know, you have been a dreadful pain in my side since my arrival, Miss Gavrikov.… Hold her steady, my lovelies. You wouldn't want her to bite me, now would you?"

"We are trying, my lord," Marishka explained.

"She is willful, this one," Verona added.

"My darlings, what do I keep telling you? If you want to master a beast, you must break them first!" and with a swift kick of his boot, his foot came in contact with Tanya's leg and the wolf howled in agony as the knee was forced to bend abruptly back before snapping from the strain and she fell to the ground.

Marishka, eager to prove her usefulness to her master, used Tanya's moment of distraction to pull back the she-wolf's arm, effectively dislocating it from its socket and the lycan whined as she finally ceased her struggling against them.

"Nicely done, pet," Dracula said with approval and the golden-haired bride beamed up at him, missing Verona who rolled her eyes, though the sign of irritation was not lost on the Count and he smirked.

Grabbing a fistful of Tanya's pelt at the top of her skull, he pushed her head down, exposing the back of her neck so he could shove the needle into her flesh. The werewolf winced, body rising as if to fight back, but the liquid within the syringe had been unleashed and it moved like fire through her veins.

The auburn fur started to shed away rapidly as her body contorted and shrunk back into her human form and when the vampires were certain they were out of danger, Verona and Marishka released Tanya and moved away to stand behind their master who watched the transformation with feigned disinterest.

"The cure worked, master!" Verona exclaimed in disbelief. "It actually worked!"

"Of course it worked."

"What do we do with her now?"

The soft whimper of Aleera rousing from unconsciousness and into new life caught his attention and without turning to gaze upon his newest bride, he motioned with his hand for Verona and Marishka to leave him.

"Gather your new sister and teach her to feed. I shall find you when I have finished putting _this _one down."

With nods of submission, the two women gracefully moved over to Aleera, helping her to her feet before leading her away into the darkness. Tanya's eyes prickled with tears as she murmured her sister's name, but Aleera never even stole a glance at her sibling and soon the brides of Count Dracula had vanished into the night, leaving their master alone with the one woman who had dared to defy him.

Tanya remained kneeling before the vampire, stark naked and freezing, her skin laced in a sheen of sweat that glistened in the moonlight. Although her broken bones and wounds had healed, there was an ache in her chest that she could not ignore – Aleera.

She had lost Aleera, after everything she had done and everything she had promised, her sister was gone and her one mode of defeating the man who had threatened to take everything from her was now gone.

She had been so certain that there was no cure for the curse of the werewolf, but it was evident that Dracula truly had always been one step ahead of her. Having grown weary of studying the black leather hessians that clad his feet, she dared to look up at him, her long rust-colored hair barely keeping her decent.

"You took my sister," she growled, and although she was no longer a werewolf, her words were soaked with a different kind of venom.

"You gave me little choice. You'll recall, she wasn't the one I originally extended my offer to."

"You will never have me!"

"Won't I?"

The query sent a shiver down Tanya's spine as she attempted to place some distance between herself and the vampire, managing to get to her feet before he reached out with a single gloved hand, grabbing her by the throat.

"Oh I don't think so, Red. You're not about to escape me so easily. Not after the little stunt you just pulled."

"Don't call me that," Tanya began, but with an unforgiving shove, she was pushed back against the trunk of a neighboring tree, pinned between it and the menacing demon that still held her by the neck.

"I will call you whatever I choose. Besides, you didn't always hate the little pet name."

"That was before I found out that you're the son of the devil."

"You know very well that my father was Vlad Dracul, voivode of Wallachia; not Lucifer."

Tanya barked out a laugh.

"Like there's a difference!"

His grip on her throat tightened.

"I'd be a bit more careful if I were you, little she-wolf. You're not immortal anymore."

"I'm not afraid of you, Dracula."

"Then why is your heart beating so rapidly?" came the query and Tanya felt an involuntary shudder rush through her when his remaining leather-clad hand rested on her naked hip.

"Don't touch me!" she snapped and she struggled against his hold, but to no avail. His grip was steel, and the more she struggled the harder he pinned her against the tree at her back, the friction of her struggle causing the rough bark to scratch.

"I will do as I please," the vampire stated as his eyes began to glow in their sockets.

Knowing exactly what he was trying to do, Tanya quickly diverted her eyes, but he had other ways of getting what he wanted from her. She could soon feel him – a dark shadow in her mind – lightly clawing at her brain, struggling for the reigns that she insisted on keeping from him.

"Stop fighting me, Tanya," his voice lulled, the sound low and deep like the growl of a black panther as the hand that rested on her hip started to smooth up her side, over her rib cage before cupping a single breast that had laid veiled behind her open hair.

Her resolve weakened slightly at the intimate contact and her breath hitched at the feeling of the cool leather against her erect nipple.

"Let me go," she pleaded, hissing when his fingers closed around the stiff peak, pinching lightly.

"Why would I want to do that?"

"You've already taken Aleera. You have no use for me."

"Oh I wouldn't say that…"

The hand that gripped her neck now grabbed hold of her chin, forcing her to look at him and though she matched her will against his, the heartbreak of losing her sister had turned her mind into an emotional chaos, giving him exactly what he needed to stick his foot in the door and push his way through.

"You know, you pleased me once before, and so willingly too," Dracula purred as he looked deeper into her eyes, ensnaring her weakened will as he pulled her in deeper and deeper still. "Would you not like to please your lover once more? There's still time, Tanya… I would happily take you over your sister, for you are still more dear to me than she shall ever be."

His thumb moved away from the line of her jaw and smoothed over her lips before dipping between them so she could taste the leather of his glove on her tongue.

"I can't," she said when he finally removed the finger from her mouth.

"I do not wish to harm you, Red, but if you refuse me, it will be the last time you ever do so," he warned.

His own person encroached on her space, crowding her in a way that was simultaneously threatening and erotic. He could feel the war in her head – the desperate need for self-preservation coupled with her screaming pride that demanded she fight back. But how could she?

His cool breath fanned her flushed face, his body hard and powerful, her vulnerable state only intensifying the lust which already brewed in her heart. She knew of the pleasure he could create and the wanton in her wanted it. Needed it.

But her pride – what he was, what he had done…

He must have sensed her inner conflict, for his lips were suddenly on hers, his mouth all ravenous kisses as his hands groped and fondled what they willed, awakening a different kind of she-wolf in her.

"Give me what I want, Tanya," Dracula breathed between kisses, his mouth worshiping the column of her neck.

"Never."

He laughed darkly into her hair as he pulled the gloves from his hands so he could touch her with his skin. He took her throat in one of his hands once again.

"Don't play coy, Red. I know what lurks in your lusting heart…" and his other set of recently freed fingers found a home in the weeping warmth between her thighs. Tanya lurched against him in surprise at the invasion.

"You know nothing of hearts… you don't even have one."

"Perhaps," he whispered, nibbling the lobe of her ear as he relished in the sounds of her whimpers, the vibrations of her restrained moans against his palm. "I want you, Tanya Gavrikov. And you want me. Isn't that enough?"

"Unhand me, you monster."

"Don't test my patience, Red. You refuse me once more and I will… " he began, growing impatient with her insolence, but she interrupted him before the vampire could finish.

"Go to hell," she spat.

The wrong words to speak, had she wished to live, but Tanya knew her mind. Given the opportunity to endanger her sister and succumb to this monster guised as a man was an eternity, she felt, would have been better to do without. Aleera had made her choice, and Tanya hers – and the latter's was to fight the embodiment of her darkest desires with her last breath.

His temper was abrupt and her death quick, a mercy she had not anticipated from the demon that now held her lifeless body in his arms, watching with evident disappointment as the light in her eyes went out.

His brides would never fathom the level of regret that would plague him for decades to come while Aleera thrived under his tutorage. Although the younger Gavrikov sister was an attentive student and a pleasing mistress, in those moments when the Count was alone, he would often find himself wondering how things would have been had he managed to tame the insolent and stunning Red.

"A pity," some would say, "that she was so willful, so unwilling to bend."

"Ah," the Count would then reply, "but that is what I loved most about her."


End file.
